Being informed of this flight of the Indians, I set out thither with

forty Christians, among whom was Arapotiyu, who was thoroughly

acquainted with the circumjacent ways and woods. But after doing much

and suffering more, we effected nothing: and having traversed the banks

of the rivers Mondaỹ and Acaraỹ and the interjacent country, without

detecting a trace of man, we were forced to remeasure our sorrowful and

weary steps: which circumstance filled every honest breast with

unspeakable grief. The Spanish and Indian Christians burnt with

indignation against that man who had dared to devastate an harvest ripe

for the shearers, and ready for the granary of the church.

In endeavouring to make these savages slaves he hindered them from

becoming worshippers of the Supreme Being and disciples of Jesus Christ.

But divine providence took vengeance on his crimes.

He had a number of hired men employed in the woods of Mbaeverà, upon the

preparation of the herb tea, a great quantity of which, already

prepared, awaited the mules which were to convey it to the city.

Meanwhile it was kept in the hut of the Spanish labourers, an edifice

situated on the banks of the river Acaraỹ, which were covered with reeds

and tall grass. These were suddenly seized with an immense

conflagration, kindled by the savages. The superintendant, fearing for

his magazine, in order to extinguish the approaching flame, despatched

eighteen of his comrades—to perish in the same conflagration; for a

sudden blast of wind inflamed the whole surface so quickly that the

Spaniards beheld themselves encircled with fire without an outlet left

for their escape. Some leapt into the marshes, but they were almost

dry;—some plunged into the mud, but all their endeavours were vain. They

were not absolutely burnt, but suffocated, scorched and roasted, their

garments, in general, remaining unhurt. The same evening thirteen

miserably perished; the next day three more; the other two came to a

still more wretched, because a more protracted end. The spies of the

savages witnessed this destruction of the Spaniards, but afar off, lest

themselves should be hurt; now more daring, from having perceived the

fewness of the Spaniards, one, armed with arrows and a club, stole into

the Spanish hut where only one man remained. "So," said the savage with

a stern aspect, "you have dared to enter these woods, which were never

yours! Know ye not that this is our hereditary soil? Are ye not content

with having injuriously usurped immense tracts and innumerable woods,

spite of the vain opposition of our ancestors? Should any one of _us_

attempt _your_ domains, would he return alive? No: and we will imitate

your example. If, therefore, you are wise, if life is dear to you,—haste

away,—advise your countrymen cautiously to shun our woods, unless they

would be the cause of their own deaths." During this menacing speech the

Spaniard remained silent, pale with expectation of the mortal stroke. To

save his life, he offered, with a trembling hand, knives, axes, garments

and other trifles within his reach; pacified by which the savage

returned to his comrades who lurked hard by. The Spaniard, deeming any

stay in these quarters extremely perilous, ran off, leaving, to its own

fate, many thousand pounds of ready made tea.

I shall here record another excursion to the savages, which, though

completed in less time than the former, was productive of more

advantage. A company of Spaniards were employed in preparing the herb of

Paraguay on the southern banks of the river Empalado. The trees from

which these leaves were plucked failing, they commissioned three men to

seek for the tree in request beyond the river. By accident they lit upon

a hovel and a field of maize, from which they falsely conjectured that

the wood was full of savage hordes. This occurrence affected them all

with such fear, that, suspending the business upon which they were

engaged, they kept within their huts, like snails in their shells, and

spent day and night in dread of hostile aggression. To deliver them from

this state of fear, a messenger was sent to St. Joachim, requiring us to

search for the savages abiding there, and to remove them, when found, to

our colony. I applied myself to the task without shrinking, and on the

day of St. John the Evangelist commenced my travels, accompanied by

forty Indians. Having taken a guide from the Spanish hut, and crossed

the river Empalado, we carefully explored all the woods and the banks of

the river Mondaỹ-mir̂i, and discovering at length, on the third day, a

human footstep, we traced it to a little dwelling, where an old woman

with her son and daughter, a youth and maiden of twenty and fifteen

years of age, had lived many years. Being asked where the other Indians

were to be found, the mother replied that no mortal besides herself and

her two children survived in these woods; that all the rest, who had

occupied this neighbourhood, had died long ago of the small-pox.

Perceiving me doubtful as to the correctness of her statement, the son

observed, "You may credit my mother in her assertion without scruple;

for I myself have traversed these woods far and near in search of a

wife, but could never meet with a single human being." Nature had taught

the young savage that it was not lawful to marry his sister. I exhorted

the old mother to migrate as fast as possible to my town, promising that

both she and her children should be more comfortably situated. She

declared herself willing to accept my invitation, to which there was

only one objection. "I have," says she, "three boars which have been

tamed from their earliest age. They follow us wherever we go, and I am

afraid, if they are exposed to the sun in a dry plain, unshaded by

trees, they will immediately perish." "Pray be no longer anxious on this

account," replied I; "depend upon it I shall treat these dear little

animals with due kindness. When the sun is hot, we will find shade

wherever we are. Lakes, rivers, or marshes will be always at hand to

cool your favourites." Induced by these promises, she agreed to go with

us. And setting out the next day we reached the town in safety on the

first of January. And now it will be proper to give a cursory account of

the mother and her offspring. Their hut consisted of the branches of the

palm-tree, their drink of muddy water. Fruits, antas, fawns, rabbits,

and various birds, maize, and the roots of the _mandiò_ tree afforded

them food; a cloth woven of the leaves of the _caraquatà_, their bed and

clothing. They delighted in honey, which abounds in the hollow trees of

the forest. The smoke of tobacco the old woman inhaled, night and day,

through the reed to which was affixed a little wooden vessel, like a

pan. The son constantly chewed tobacco leaves reduced to powder. Shells

sharpened at a stone or split reeds served them for knives. The youth,

who catered for his mother and sister, carried in his belt two pieces of

iron, the fragment of some old broken knife, about as broad and long as

a man's thumb, inserted in a wooden handle, and bound round with wax and

thread. With this instrument he used to fashion arrows with great

elegance, make wooden gins to take antas, perforate trees which seemed

likely to contain honey, and perform other things of this kind. There

being no clay to make pots of, they had fed, all their lives, on roasted

meat instead of boiled. The leaves of the herb of Paraguay they only

steeped in cold water, having no vessel to boil it in. To show how

scanty their household furniture was, mention must be made of their

clothes. The youth wore a cloak of the thread of the caraquatà, reaching

from his shoulders to his knees, his middle being girded with little

cords, from which hung a gourd full of the tobacco dust which he chewed.

A net of coarser thread was the mother's bed by night and her only

garment by day. The girl in like manner wore a short net by day in which

she slept at night. This appearing to me too transparent, I gave her a

cotton towel to cover her more effectually. The girl folding up the

linen cloth into many folds, placed it on her head to defend her from

the heat of the sun, but at the desire of the Indians wrapped it round

her. I made the youth, too, wear some linen wrappers, which in my

journey I had worn round my head as a defence against the gnats. Before

this, he had climbed the highest trees like a monkey to pluck from

thence food for his pigs, but his bandages impeded him like fetters, so

that he could scarcely move a step. In such extreme need, in such penury

I found them, experiencing the rigours of ancient anchorites, without

discontent, vexation, or disease.

My three wood Indians wore their hair dishevelled, cropped, and without

a bandage. The youth neither had his lip perforated, nor his head

crowned with parrot feathers. The mother and daughter had no ear-rings,

though the former wore round her neck a cord from which depended a small

heavy piece of wood, of a pyramidal shape, so that by their mutual

collision they made a noise at every step. At first sight I asked the

old woman whether she used this jingling necklace to frighten away the

gnats; and I afterwards substituted a string of beautifully coloured

glass-beads, in place of these wooden weights. The mother and son were

tall and well-looking, but the daughter had so fair and elegant a

countenance, that a poet would have taken her for one of the nymphs or

dryads, and any European might safely call her beautiful. She united a

becoming cheerfulness with great courtesy, and did not seem at all

alarmed at our arrival, but rather enlivened. She laughed heartily at

_our_ Guarany, and we, on the other hand, at _her's_. For as this

insulated family had no intercourse with any but themselves, their

language was most ridiculously corrupted. The youth had never seen a

female except his mother and sister, nor any male but his father. The

girl had seen no woman but her mother nor any man but her brother, her

father having been torn to pieces by a tiger before she was born. To

gather the fruits that grew on the ground or on the trees, and wood for

fuel, the dexterous girl ran over the forest tangled as it was with

underwood, reeds, and brambles, by which she had her feet wretchedly

scratched. Not to go unattended, she commonly had a little parrot on her

shoulder, and a small monkey on her arm, unterrified by the tigers that

haunt that neighbourhood. The new proselytes were quickly clothed in the

town, and served with the daily allowance of food before the rest. I

also took care they should take frequent excursions to the neighbouring

woods, to enjoy the shade and pleasant freshness of the trees, to which

they had been accustomed. For we found by experience, that savages

removed to towns often waste away from the change of food and air, and

from the heat of the sun, which powerfully affects their frames,

accustomed, as they have been from infancy, to moist, cool, shady

groves. The same was the fate of the mother, son, and daughter in our

town. A few weeks after their arrival they were afflicted with a

universal heaviness and rheum, to which succeeded a pain in the eyes and

ears, and, not long after, deafness. Lowness of spirits, and disgust to

food at length wasted their strength to such a degree that an incurable

consumption followed. After languishing some months, the old mother, who

had been properly instructed in the Christian religion and baptized,

delivered up her spirit, with a mind so calm, so acquiescent with the

divine will, that I cannot doubt but that she entered into a blessed

immortality. The girl, who had entered the town full of health and

beauty, soon lost all resemblance to herself. Enfeebled, withering by

degrees like a flower, her bones hardly holding together, she at length

followed her mother to the grave, and, if I be not much deceived, to

Heaven. Her brother still surviving was attacked by the same malady that

proved fatal to his mother and sister, but being of a stronger

constitution overcame it. The measles, which made great havoc in the

town, left him so confirmed in health that there seemed nothing to be

feared in regard to him. He was of a cheerful disposition, went to

church regularly, learnt the doctrines of Christianity with diligence,

was gentle and compliant to all, and in every thing discovered marks of

future excellence. Nevertheless, to put his perseverance to the proof, I

thought it best to delay his baptism a little. At this time an Indian

Christian, a good man and rich in land, who, at my orders, had received

this catechumen into his house, came to me and said, "My father, our

wood Indian is in perfect health of body, but seems to have gone a

little astray in mind: he makes no complaints, but says that sleep has

deserted him, his mother and sister appearing to him every night in a

vision, saying, in a friendly tone, 'Suffer thyself, I pray thee, to be

baptized. We shall return to take thee away, when thou dost not expect

it.' This vision, he says, takes away his sleep." "Tell him," answered

I, "to be of good heart, for that the melancholy remembrance of his

mother and sister, with whom he has lived all his life, is the probable

cause of these dreams, and that they, as I think, are gone to Heaven,

and have nothing more to do with this world." A few days after, the same

Indian returns, giving the same account as before, and with confirmed

suspicions respecting the fearful delirium of our new Christian.

Suspecting there was something in it, I immediately hastened to his

house, and found him sitting. On my enquiring how he felt himself,

"Well," he replied, smiling, "and entirely free from pain;" but added,

that he got no sleep at night owing to the appearance of his mother and

sister, admonishing him to hasten his baptism, and threatening to take

him away unexpectedly. He told me over and over again, with his usual

unreservedness, that this prevented him from getting any rest. I thought

it probable that this was a mere dream, and worthy, on that account, of

neglect. Mindful, however, that dreams have often been divine

admonitions and the oracles of God, as appears from Holy Writ, it seemed

advisable, in a matter of such moment, to consult both the security and

tranquillity of the catechumen. Being assured of his constancy, and of

his acquaintance with the chief heads of religion by previous

interrogatories, I soon after baptized him with the name of Lewis. This

I did on the 23d of June, the eve of St. John, about the hour of ten in

the morning. On the evening of the same day, without a symptom of

disease or apoplexy, he quietly expired.

This event, a fact well known to the whole town, and which I am ready to

attest on oath, astonished every one. I leave my reader to form his own

opinion; but in my mind I could never deem the circumstance merely

accidental. To the exceeding compassion of the Almighty I attribute it

that these three Indians were discovered by me in the unknown recesses

of the woods; that they so promptly complied with my exhortations to

enter my town, and embrace Christianity; and that they closed their

lives after receiving baptism. The remembrance of my expedition to the

river Empalado, though attended with so many hardships and dangers, is

still most grateful to my heart, inasmuch as it proved highly fortunate

to the three wood Indians and advantageous to the Spaniards. These last,

having been certified by me, that, upon the immense tracts of woodland

here mentioned, not a vestige of the savages remained, collected, during

the three years they stayed, many hundred thousand pounds of the herb of

Paraguay, from which they derived an amazing profit. Thus much on the

Guarany towns of Taruma. If on this subject I appear to have written too

much, let the reader be told that I have passed over many memorable

things in silence.

The most recent colony in the jurisdiction of Paraguay, called Belen, is

situated on the banks of the Ypaneguazù, to the north of Asumpcion. It

was built in 1760 for Indians of the savagest kind, called Guaycurus or

Mbayas. They are very expert horsemen, large and generally tall, hostile

in the highest degree to the Spaniards, full of the absurdest

superstition and arrogance, and, as appears from their clothing and

manners, ignorant of the very name of modesty. Their only care is that

of their horses and arms, in the management of which their skill is

admirable. War, or more correctly pillage, is the occupation they reckon

most honourable. In 1745, they laid waste the lands of Paraguay, with

exceeding pertinacity. The greater part of the province was more

employed in regretting the slaughters and the rapine, than in preventing

them, nor could they devise any remedy for the evil. The soldiers were

now baffled by their swiftness, now unexpectedly surprized by their

designs, and now discomfited by their powerful assaults. The savages,

elated by the daily victories they had gained for many years, could

neither be restrained by the arms of the Spaniards nor appeased by fair

words. At last, in the sixteenth year of the present century, the

desired peace was at length brought about, and a colony founded in the

place above-mentioned. To found and govern this, Father Joseph Sanchez

Labrador was happily chosen. He spared no labour in learning the

difficult language of the savages, and in bringing them round to

civilization and christianity, both by daily instruction and by

kindness. Would that the Father's diligence and patience had obtained a

corresponding reward! The little grandson of the Cacique Epaguini, who

presided over the colony, many infants, and, some adults whose lives

were despaired of, received baptism; but the rest did little else than

wander over the plains. Their fidelity, however, seems above all praise;

for, after the conclusion of the peace, they never formed any design

hostile to the Spaniards, who, whilst they feared the Mbayas as enemies,

and remembered the slaughter they had sustained, promised mountains of

gold for the maintenance of their colony; but when their fears subsided,

they began to supply them sparingly, or at least tardily, with those

things deemed necessary for living in a town, so that the proselytes

would have died of hunger had not the fruit of the palm-tree and wild

animals supplied the want of beef. Countless and incredible are the

labours, cares, hardships, and perils even of their lives, with which

Father Joseph Sanchez and his companions, Juan Garzia, and Manuel Duran,

were harassed for many years. Duran, the person last named, was intended

to begin a new colony for the Guañas or Chañas, a pedestrian tribe,

subject to the Mbayas, exceedingly numerous on both sides the Paraguay.

Being skilful agriculturists, they have already begun to cultivate the

grounds and to raise themselves crops on the eastern shore of the

Paraguay. In a soil so fertile, so opportune for the discovery of new

nations, great progress in the Christian cause was expected from this

docile, and populous nation. But he who had long employed himself in the

foundation of the colony, when, with incredible labour, he had collected

the necessaries for its preservation and completion, was summoned with

his associates back to Europe.

Having now mentioned the Indian colonies within the domains of Paraguay,

we will proceed to the other peculiarities of the province.

Notwithstanding the heat of the climate, the soil of Paraguay abounds in

the most useful productions: cotton, the sugar cane, tobacco, honey,

maize, mandioc, various kinds of pulse, potatoes of different sorts,

medicinal plants, colours, frankincense, divers species of gums,

balsams, palms, towering cedars, and other trees, both those that bear

fruit, and those that serve for building of ships, houses, and waggons;

it moreover abounds in horses, mules, oxen, and sheep. There is no

vestige of metals or precious stones in this country, as the early

Spaniards imagined. Parrots, monkeys of various kinds, antas, stags,

deer, tamanduas, tigers, and lions: choice fish, emus, partridges, dogs,

crocodiles, capibaris, and huge tortoises, are every where to be found

in astonishing numbers. The countless myriads of serpents, snakes, ants,

and other reptiles and insects, evidently noxious, we shall fully treat

of hereafter. The production peculiar to this province, and consequently

by much the most profitable, is the Herb of Paraguay; of the production,

preparation, nature, use, and price of which I am now going to treat.

The leaves cut from the tree _Caà_, and parched at a slow fire, got the

name of the Herb of Paraguay, from a sort of resemblance to the herb

tea, which, like itself, is drunk infused in boiling water. The tree

_caà_ grows no where spontaneously but in woods about two hundred

leagues from the city of Asumpcion. Like reeds, it thrives best in a

moist swampy soil. In form and foliage, except that the leaves are

softer, it resembles the orange tree, but far exceeds it in size. Its

flowers are small and white, with a calyx composed of five leaflets. The

seed is very like American pepper, except that three or four small

whitish, oblong kernels appear beneath the skin. The boughs, which are

cut off from the trees with a bill, are parched for some time on beams

laid cross-wise over the fire; after which the leaves, with the smaller

twigs, are spread on the ground, and beat to powder with sticks. When

prepared by this less laborious method, it is called _yerba de palos_,

because it is composed of leaves and leaf-stems, and their fibres, which

are in a certain degree woody. An _arroba_ (which is twenty-five pounds)

of this herb, is sold in the forest for nearly two German florins; in

the city of Asumpcion, from the expense of carriage, the price is

double. The _caà-miri_ is sold at a double price, being prepared by our

Guaranies, with more labour and accuracy; for they carefully separate

and throw aside the leaf-stems and larger fibres. After parching the

leaves at a slow fire, they pound them gently in a wooden mortar, taking

care not to beat them too small. For the more entire they remain, the

more taste and smell they possess; if pulverized very small, they lose

both. _Caà-miri_ signifies the small herb, being made by the Indian

Guaranies of the tender parts of the leaves, the leaf-stems and all the

particles of wood being excluded; it is not, however, reduced to powder,

like that of the Spaniards. The herb, when properly prepared, exhales a

very pleasant fragrance, without the admixture of any thing else; but if

it be sprinkled with a little of the leaves or rind of the fruits of the

_quabira miri_, the odour is doubled, the flavour improved, and the

price increased. Add to this, that the herb is of a gummy nature, and in

parching it, care must be taken that it be not over-dried. Merchants,

when they would try the quality of the herb, put a little of it into the

palm of their hand, and blow upon it; when much of the herb flies off,

they judge it to be too high dried, and deprived of juice and virtue;

but when it adheres to the hand as if glued there by a natural gum, they

value it highly. In consequence of the bitterness natural to the herb,

it is drunk with sugar. The Indians, however, and the lower orders

amongst the Spaniards, drink it unmingled with any thing. Though the

_caà_ is only found in the remotest parts of Paraguay towards the N. E.,

it affords a beverage not only to the Paraguayans, but to the Peruvians

and the inhabitants of Chili, who never cease sipping it from morning to

night. This nectar of Paraguay is relished by every rank, age, and sex,

and is to them what chocolate, coffee, Chinese tea, and spirits are to

other nations. The herb, after having been conveyed on mules from the

remotest roads of Paraguay to the distant kingdoms of Peru and Chili,

from the difficulties of the journey, and the heavy tolls, which send

great returns to the royal treasury, is sold at its journey's end, at a

greatly increased price.

The vessel in which it is taken is made of a hide, or of a gourd split

in half, and, amongst the higher orders, plated all round with silver.

Into this vessel they put a common table spoonful of the herb, stir it

up for some time with sugar and cold water, and then pour the hot water

upon it. Many drop in the juice of a citron or lemon. The herb thus

prepared is strained through a silver pipe, annexed to which is a little

globe, finely punctured; this is done lest any particle of the herb,

which is noxious to the stomach, should slip down the throat with the

liquor. Others use a narrow wooden pipe or slender reed for this

purpose. The Indians, who are not in the habit of straining it, often

swallow unintentionally a quantity of the herb, green concrete balls of

which are sometimes said to be found in the bowels of the deceased.

However this may be, it is most certain, that the warm water in which

the herb has been steeped too long, cannot be drunk with safety to the

health. Water of this kind grows black, and is only used by ink makers

to deepen the blackness of their ink.

The moderate use of this herb is wholesome and beneficial in many ways.

For when taken with caution, it acts as a diuretic, provokes a gentle

perspiration, improves the appetite, speedily counteracts the languor

arising from the burning climate, and assuages both hunger and thirst,

especially if the herb be drunk with cold water without sugar. If any

one wishes to perspire freely, he needs no drug: let him drink an

infusion of this herb, as hot as possible, and then lie down. If his

stomach appear in want of an emetic, he has only to take the same herb

in tepid water. On the other hand, it cannot be doubted, that by the

immoderate and almost hourly use of this potation, the stomach is

weakened, and continual flatulence, with other diseases, brought on. I

have known many of the lower Spaniards who never spoke ten words without

applying their lips to the gourd containing the ready-made tea. If many

topers in Europe waste their substance by an immoderate use of wine and

other intoxicating liquors, there are no fewer in America who drink away

their fortunes in potations of the herb of Paraguay.

In the remotest forests, many thousands of men are employed unceasingly

in the preparation of this herb during every part of the year, and many

thousands of oxen are annually consumed in these labours. But who shall

number the multitude of mules, not only occupied in transporting the

herb, but destroyed by the asperities and the length of the journey?

Hence they who hire the labourers that collect the herb, who supply

oxen, mules, and the various iron implements, seldom grow rich, and they

who are hired for this business live amidst constant wretchedness. The

merchants who import it into Peru and Chili are the only gainers, and

their gains are immense. If in all Paraguay there are a few opulent men,

they have amassed their wealth from dealing in the Herb of Paraguay, and

in mules, which they export into Peru and Chili. The marketing of the

other Paraguayrian productions is attended with infinite labour, and

little or uncertain profit. I have often heard the Paraguayrians

complain of the scarcity of the _caà_ tree; but I must own their

lamentations always appeared to me very ridiculous, when they themselves

are the occasion of it. For when, after the usual manner, they ought

only to cut off the boughs, for the sake of a readier profit they fell

the trees themselves; this being very generally done, the trees are

yearly diminished in great numbers. The Indians, more provident, only

crop the superfluous and luxuriant boughs, the tree itself being left

alive and uninjured for succeeding years.

To spare time, expense, and labour, we planted the _caà_ within sight of

the Guarany Reductions, and from them, in a very short time, the largest

forests have arisen. If the Spanish agriculturists would but imitate

this piece of industry, how much would their fortunes be benefited! But

the planting of woods of this kind requires art, and patience, and the

labour of many hands. The seed of the _caà_ being exceedingly glutinous,

must be washed in water till that native gluten be thoroughly removed;

which if you neglect, your time will be lost, and your hopes frustrated.

The ground in which you mean to sow the prepared seed must be copiously

drenched with water, and almost rendered muddy. These premises having

been cautiously attended to, you may think yourself fortunate, if, at

the end of four months, any sign of germination appear; the seed being

sown very deep. While the plants are yet young, they must be

transplanted, and set at great and equal distances, lest one impede and

injure the other. A ditch, two feet deep and as many broad, must be dug,

to receive and retain the rain-water; and in the middle of each ditch

the plants are to be placed singly. As long as the plants are tender,

they must be defended against the hoarfrost and cutting south winds by a

little thatched tent. This is moreover indisputable, that the trees

which are planted and reared by human care, never grow so high as those

of nature's own setting in the forests. Those however which are planted

and cultivated by us, in three or four years time produce a plenteous

crop of leaves, so that the labour attending artificial woods is

sufficiently repaid by the after-profit. Woods are likewise sown by

various birds, which swallow with great avidity the seeds of the

herb-tree; these being, by reason of their natural gluten, indigestible,

pass through them, and falling into moist ground, become the daily

origin of new trees, and gradually of forests.

I have often been asked, why the herb of Paraguay is never exported to

Europe, and I have answered, on many accounts. In the first place, very

little more is prepared than suffices the Americans. If, moreover, the

Spaniards of Paraguay gasped after commerce and gain, they might export

not only this herb, but many other profitable commodities. Their ships,

especially in time of war, are few; their security none. Add to this,

that in a few years it spoils, and losing its original fragrance smells

like Russian shoe-leather; when in this state, it is used by the

Paraguayrians to die cloth black. The Europeans, moreover, having never

so much as tasted the herb, have no desire to fetch it from America,

which they would certainly do, if acquainted with its virtues. Oh! how I

burn with resentment whenever I read that the Jesuits monopolize the

herb of Paraguay! It has ever been free to all, without distinction, to

sell as well as to drink this much spoken of herb. There is no part of

the year that the Spaniards do not despatch to the cities of Corrientes,

Santa Fé, and Buenos-Ayres, many thousand pounds of it, thence to be

transported, in huge vessels, to the different ports of Tucuman, Peru,

and Chili, not one of the Jesuits daring to arrogate the right of

opposing them. The Indian Guaranies, inhabitants of the thirty-two

Reductions which were under our administration, only make the herb

_caà-miri_, selling it for the use of the higher orders. As the

preparation of it is much more laborious, it is entirely neglected by

the Spaniards, who confine themselves to the coarser herb _caà de

palos_; and the quantity of herb annually sold by the Spaniards exceeds

that disposed of by the Indians as much as the whole hand does the

little finger. For the Guarany towns are not permitted by the laws to

sell above a certain quantity; but the Spaniards are under no such

restriction. In most parts of Paraguay there is no currency of money,

and the herb is the usual medium of exchange. But of this trade we pay

an annual poll-tax in the Guarany towns, and are besides obliged to fit

out our churches, which are highly ornamented, and procure for our

Indians the necessary iron implements. Nor can the superintendents of

colleges, who exchange the cattle of their estates, and other natural

productions for the herb, and that again for implements, instead of

money, be justly accounted herb-merchants. For the founders of the

colleges did not leave estates paying rent, nor sums of money put out at

interest, as is usual in Europe, but plains and cattle of various kinds,

for the support of the members and the repairing of the dwellings and

churches. The productions of the estates and plains are there in the

place of money, with which necessaries are to be procured. This

exchange, which, unless we preferred dying of want, was absolutely

necessary, either ignorance or malice has designated trafficking. How

many and how ridiculous are the clamours that have been raised against

the Portugueze Jesuits by these lying pamphlets, because they sold sugar

brought them from Brazil, when, in fact, they had received no other

means of subsistence from the founders of their college!

We must now say something of the tobacco plant, in which the soil of

Paraguay is very fertile. This is sown both in the plains and woods, and

succeeds equally well in either, though some prefer the tobacco grown in

woods. Its leaves, when dried a little in the air, and fastened into

bundles with a twig, are chewed by some, smoked by others, and by a very

few taken in the form of snuff. For the higher ranks use the snuff made

at Seville only, though the price of a pound is at least four Spanish

crowns, and often still more in Paraguay. Certain it is that the

Paraguayrian tobacco in fragrance falls short of that brought from

Virginia, or the island of Cuba. The first leaves that ripen, in

Paraguay, are very large, often exceeding an ell in length; those which

are plucked afterwards decrease more and more. The smoke of the tobacco

is generally inhaled without any tube or vessel, in the following

manner:—A leaf, not perforated in any part, is squared, to the length

and breadth of the middle finger. In the middle of this is laid another

little leaf compressed by the finger, and rolled up, together with the

exterior and larger one. Light one end of this, put the other into your

mouth, and draw in the smoke. The Spaniards smoke their tobacco with

more cleanness and less cost, carrying about with them a deposit of

several of those folds, called _zigarros_, and lighting them at their

pleasure. The common people roll up the tobacco, cut small, in a paper,

or in a maize leaf, and light it; but that this smoke injures the human

head is beyond a doubt. Not only the soldiers and sailors, and the

common people, as in Germany, but even the higher orders, often smoke

tobacco.

In Brazil the Portugueze twist the tobacco leaf into ropes, which,

prepared in different ways, are either used as snuff, or chewed or

smoked. It is incredible how highly this Brazilian tobacco is extolled

by medical men, and how eagerly it is sought by Europeans. The Spaniards

themselves every year consume an astonishing quantity to provoke saliva.

By the traffic in tobacco alone, many millions have been lost by the

Spaniards to the Portugueze, the sole venders of an article in such

demand. To restrain so great an annual exportation of money to

foreigners, it was provided by the Catholic King Charles III. in the

year 1765, that the Spanish and Indian Paraguayrians should henceforth

prepare their tobacco in the manner of the Portugueze, as being no wise

inferior to the Brazilian, and that it should be sold at the price fixed

by the royal governours, the whole profits accruing to the royal

treasury. The king's order was universally, though unwillingly complied

with, the new manufacture costing them much labour, with little or no

gain to the labourers. I will give you an account of the whole

process:—The tobacco leaves are accounted ripe when their ends turn

yellow, and wither, and are plucked before noon, as being moister at

that time. They are then suspended from reeds that they may dry a

little, and remain some hours under the shade of a roof. The stem which

runs through the middle of the leaf is either beaten down with a bat or

removed entirely. The leaves thus prepared are twisted into ropes, by

means of a wheel, and then rolled upon a cylindrical piece of wood. This

cylinder, with its tobacco, is placed under the shade of a roof in such

a manner that it may receive the heat of the sun, and yet not be touched

by any of its rays. The tobacco, thus compressed spirally upon the

cylinder, exudes a black, glutinous juice, which falls drop by drop into

a hide placed underneath. This juice flows daily through, and in like

manner is daily poured again upon the folds; and when the whole mass is

thoroughly penetrated by the liquor, it will be necessary to roll the

spiral folds daily back again from one cylinder to another. By this

method, the lowest part of the tobacco nearest the first cylinder is

transferred on the next to the surface, imbibes the juice equally,

blackens, and grows rich like lard. To effect this, the translation from

one cylinder to another, and the sprinkling of the tobacco, must be

diligently continued for many weeks. The sweetness of the smell will

mark the completion of the process. To prevent its drying, it must be

kept in a moist place, apart from every thing which might taint it with

any other smell. Tobacco prepared in this manner is chopped by the

Portugueze into small pieces, which they roast in a new pot placed on

the hot coals, and stirring them with a round stick, reduce them to the

finest powder—the future delight of every nose in Portugal.

Thus, though the trade in the herb of Paraguay, in tobacco, cotton, and

sugar, and the abundance of different fruits, might offer to the

colonists of Paraguay manifold opportunities of acquiring wealth, yet

very few opulent men are to be found. They have many means of wealth,

but still more impediments. From the very infancy of this province to

the present time, bloody seditions, civil wars, contentions, and

pernicious enmities to the royal governours and bishops, have miserably

diminished the riches of the Spaniards. Add to this, that the savage

Guaycurus, Lenguas, Mocobios, Tobas, Abipones, and Mbayas, wretchedly

wasted the province with massacres and pillage, without leaving the

miserable inhabitants a place to breathe in, or the means of resistance.

To elude their designs, little fortlets are every where erected on the

banks of the Paraguay, fitted up with a single cannon, which, being

discharged whenever the savages come in sight, admonishes the neighbours

to fight or fly, according to circumstances. The fortlets not being very

far distant from one another, the repeated explosions of guns quickly

signifies the approach of an enemy descried from afar, to the metropolis

itself. As this province is destitute of a regular soldiery, the

settlers themselves are ordered sometimes to watch in these fortlets,

sometimes to march against the savages. Being every year pressed for

some months with the burdens of the militia, they are forced, during

frequent and long absences, to neglect their substance, their families,

their agriculture, and their commerce. In this you may see the chief

origin of their poverty. Besides the equestrian savages, who is ignorant

of the calamities brought upon this province by the barbarous Payaguas?

These atrocious pirates, infesting the rivers Paraguay and Parana, had

for many years been in the habit of intercepting Spanish vessels

freighted with wares for the port of Buenos-Ayres, or conveying them

from thence, and of massacring the crews. At length Raphael de la

Moneda, the royal governour, repressed the audacity of these pirates,

and after repeated successful excursions along the river, obliged them

to crave a peace, of which their living quietly on the shore of the

Paraguay within sight of the city of Asumpcion, was a principal

condition. For many years they have kept to the convention; but no

persuasions of the bishops, the governours, or the priests, could ever

prevail upon them to embrace our religion. They are tall, and extremely

muscular. The frightful appearance which nature has given them they

increase with adscititious ornaments. In the under lip, which is

perforated, they fix a long tube, sometimes of wood, sometimes of

shining copper, reaching down to the breast. To the flap of one of their

ears they tie the wing of a huge vulture. Their hair is stained with a

purple juice, or with the blood of oxen. On their neck, their arms, and

the calves of their legs, they wear strings of glass beads. They paint

the whole body from head to foot with a variety of colours. The females,

of every age, are decently covered with woollen garments woven by

themselves. The males think themselves handsomely arrayed if they be

elegantly painted; and formerly frequented both their own settlement,

and the Spanish city and houses, in a state of complete nakedness; which

being considered offensive to Christian decency by the governour Raphael

de la Moneda, he provided that a quantity of coarse cotton should be

distributed amongst the adult savages, with this edict, that if any of

them thenceforth entered the city naked, he should be punished at the

pillory in the market-place with fifty strokes. One of them had brought

fish to the house of a Spanish matron to sell, in exchange for which he

received a fruit called _mandubi_. Having no sack to put them in, he

held them in the bottom of his garment lifted up as high as the loins.

On departing, when he had reached the door of the room, he began to

think within himself that this mode of proceeding would be punished by

the governour with a public whipping, if he should hear of it. Alarmed

by this consideration, he returns to the matron, repeats the word

_Moneda_, with his finger in a threatening attitude, and having let down

the fore part of his garment, pours the fruit on the ground, puts them

into the hind part, and joyfully carries them off; thinking that by this

method he might walk through the market-place decently and unpunished.

They use their own language, though, from their constant intercourse

with the Spaniards, the majority can stammer a little Spanish and

Guarany. They abound in nuptial, funeral, natal, and military rites, and

in the absurdest superstitions. Their weapons are a bow and arrows, long

spears, and a club; but their craft is more formidable than their arms.

Each family has its canoe, a narrow one indeed, but very long. They are

managed with a single oar, pointed at the end like a sword, and fly at

the slightest impulse in any direction. Their velocity is owing to their

structure. The keel touches the water for little more than three palms

in the middle; the remainder, towards the prow and poop, is curved like

a bow, and rises out of the water. Both ends of the canoe are sharp

alike, and either serves for poop or prow, as seems good. When the river

is stormiest, they trust themselves and their families, without fear, to

its waves. If ever the boat is upset by an unusually strong wave, which

happens but seldom, the Payagua gets astride the boat, and thus pursues

his way. How often, from the shore, have I beheld the Payagua struggling

and laughing amid the foaming waves of the tumultuous river, and

expected every moment to see him swallowed up by the eddying waters!

They plunge into the lowest depths of the water, and after remaining

under a surprising time, emerge at an immense distance, loaden with

fish. They have two sorts of canoes; the lesser for fishing and daily

voyages, the larger for the uses of war. These latter will hold forty

warriors. If their designs be against the Spaniards, many of them join

together in one fleet, and are the more dangerous from their drawing so

little water, which enables them to lurk within the shelter of the

lesser rivers, or islands, till a favourable opportunity presents itself

of pillaging loaden vessels, or of disembarking and attacking the

colonies. These savages, though more like beasts than men in their

outward appearance, do nevertheless in the contrivance of their designs

discover amazing subtlety. For many years they continued to pillage the

Spanish colonies, and all the ships that came in their way, from the

city of Asumpcion, forty leagues southwards. To the cities of Asumpcion

and Corrientes, to the vicinity of Buenos-Ayres, and to the Guarany and

Spanish towns, I appeal as witnesses. Heaps of dead bodies, crowds of

boys and girls driven away, houses reduced to ashes, wares, and all

kinds of precious furniture carried off, and churches laid waste—these

are the monuments of the barbarous ferocity of these pirates: documents

of their deceit yet fresh in the memory of man, on my coming into

Paraguay. Many tribes of Payaguas yet remain, who, though bound by no

tie of friendship to the Spaniards, cause them no apprehension, because

they live remote from the city of Asumpcion, on the northern parts of

the Paraguay, and on the shores of the rivers flowing into it, which the

Spaniards seldom visit. But the Portugueze who dwell in Cayaba are

sometimes taken, and sometimes slain by Payaguas still practising

piracy.

To the royal jurisdictions of Buenos-Ayres and Rio de la Plata, of

Tucuman and Asumpcion, must be added a region named Chaco. Its length is

300 leagues, its breadth 100. Tucuman, the region De las Charcas, Santa

Cruz de la Sierra, and the rivers De la Plata and Paraguay surround

Chaco; on both sides it is bounded by the mountains which stretch from

Cordoba to the Peruvian silver mines at the cities of Lipes and Potosi,

thence to Santa Cruz de la Sierra, and lastly to the lake Mamore, where

they terminate. This territory, throughout its whole extent, enjoys a

salubrious climate, and a rich fertile soil. Here it gently swells into

pleasant hillocks, there sinks into fertile vallies, affording rich

pasturage to horses and cattle of all kinds. It is adorned with woods,

and a variety of excellent trees. On the Peruvian side, stones and rocks

that seem to threaten the skies, cover immense tracts of land. Towards

the south, it is utterly destitute of stones, pebbles, or sand, though

you dig to the depth of fourteen feet. Incredible multitudes of strange

beasts, birds, amphibious animals, and fishes present themselves to the

eye. Besides lakes and rivulets, the ground is watered by noble rivers,

which overflow the banks and inundate the sloping plains to a great

extent. The most considerable stream in Chaco is the Rio Grande, or

Vermejo, which has its source in the Peruvian mountains, and is

increased by the accession of many rivers, till it shortly becomes

navigable for small ships. It flows down in a very deep channel, with

the most rapid course; washes the cities of Guadalcazar and Concepcion,

long since devastated by the savages, and at about thirty leagues

distance from thence, mingles its waters with the Paraguay, a little

before its junction with the Parana. The waters of the Rio Grande, which

abound in fish, are pronounced by authors to be salubrious, especially

to those who labour under a difficulty of urine, or any disease of the

bladder. The second place to this river is occupied by the Pilcomayo,

which also flows from the Peruvian mountains. The distance between it

and the Rio Grande is reckoned at thirty leagues. It is not navigable at

all times, nor in all places. Nearly eighty leagues from its junction

with the Paraguay, it splits into two arms, forming an island of as many

leagues in length. The first of these arms which flows into the

Paraguay, within sight of Asumpcion, is called by the Guaranies

_Araguaaỹ_, or the wise river; possibly because the greatest sagacity is

requisite to effect its navigation. The whole island is annually

flooded, so that both branches of the river coalescing into one channel,

it must be attributed to fortune, rather than to skill, if any pilot

pass over the opposing shallows, and the meanders of its waters in

safety. The other arm, which retains the name of _Pilcomayo_, unites

with the Paraguay at about the distance of nine leagues to the south of

Asumpcion. The waters of the Pilcomayo are, for the most part, extremely

foul.

The Rio Salado derives its origin from the mountains of Salta. In sundry

places it changes both its channel and its name. At first it is called

Rio Arias, presently Rio Passage, and afterwards, in the neighbourhood

of the castle de Val Buena, Rio Salado. Beyond the city of Santa Fè, it

assumes the name of Coronda, and finally, under this name, loses itself

in the mighty waters of the Parana. For a length of way, its waters are

not only sweet, but very famous for their salubrity, which, however,

tributary lakes and rivers corrupt with such filth and saltness, that,

for the space of many leagues, the very beasts refuse to touch it. It

may be worth while to notice the origin of its saltness. The

neighbouring plains abound in the shrub _vidriera_, the ashes of which

reduced to a calx are employed in the making of glass. The _vidriera_

resembles the juniper; the berries are small and cylindrical, green,

nearly transparent, and joined one with another, being in place both of

boughs and leaves. If I remember rightly, it bears no fruit. The rain

falling upon these shrubs, contracts a saltness, and flowing down the

country, communicates it to the lakes and streams, which enter rivers

sweet at their source, and miserably taint them. The palm tree

(_carandaỹ_) under which salt-petre is produced, has the same effect as

the _vidriera_. But though the waters of the Rio Salado be salt, they

are pellucid, and in the deepest parts the excellent fish, with which

this river abounds, are perceptible at the bottom. Its channel is deep,

and contained within narrow, though lofty and precipitous banks, through

which it quietly flows, unnavigable, except near Santa Fè. Between the

Salado and Dulce flows the rivulet Turugon, which, being girt with

woods, even in the driest weather, affords plentiful and sweet waters to

the traveller, as it is neither interrupted by shallows, nor tainted

with salt. It is not far distant from the little Indian town Salabina.

The Rio Dulce, which is the Nile of the territory of St. Iago, after

proceeding a little southerly, overflows its banks, and is finally

received by the lake of gourds (Laguna de los Porrongos) between Cordoba

and Santa Fè. Not many leagues distant is the white lake, (Laguna

Blanca,) where the Indians and Spaniards affirm that howlings, as of

bulls, are heard in the dead of the night.

The rivers and streams of lesser note which belong to Chaco, are the

Centa, the Ocloyas, the Jujuy, the Sinancas, the Rio Negro, the Rio

Verde, the Atopehenra Lauate, the Rio Rey or Ychimaye, the Malabrigo or

Neboque Latèl, the Inespin or Naraheguem, the Eleya, &c.; who shall

number them all, when they are almost innumerable, and often unnamed?

Most of these, after a long drought, become almost dry, a no uncommon

occurrence in Chaco. You may often travel many leagues where not even a

bird could discover a drop of water. On the other hand, when the sky is

prodigal of its hoard, the brooks seem rivers, and the rivers seas,

whole plains being inundated. During many journies of many weeks, when

we had to contend with water, mud, and deep marshes, there was often not

a palm of dry land where we could rest at night. The Spanish soldiers

who were with me sometimes ascended high trees, and perching there, like

birds, enjoyed some portion of rest during the night. Several of them

lighted a fire there to heat their water. But the calamity was far more

intolerable when we had to ride, without resting day or night, for many

leagues, under a burning sun, before we reached a situation where we

could obtain water for ourselves and our horses. At other places, you

might traverse immense plains without seeing a twig to light a fire

with. Wherever you turn, you meet with an army of gnats, serpents, and

noxious insects, besides lions, tigers, and other formidable wild

beasts.

This is the face of the province called Chaco! which the Spanish

soldiers look upon as a theatre of misery, and the savages as their

Palestine and Elysium. Hither the Indians fled, when the Spaniards first

laid the yoke on the inhabitants of Peru. To escape the dreadful hands,

nay the very sight of the Europeans, they betook themselves to the

coverts of Chaco. For there they had mountains for observatories,

trackless woods for fortifications, rivers and marshes for ditches, and

plantations of fruit trees for storehouses; and there a numerous

population still eludes the attempts of the Spaniards. It appears very

probable, that these lurking-places in Chaco were tenanted by indigenous

tribes, prior to the arrival of the Spaniards; and if so, it is

indubitable that the new arrivers joined themselves to the natives, in

the hope of security. Several tribes formerly existed in Chaco, but of

these the names alone, or very slender relics remain. Of this number

were the Calchaquis, formerly very numerous, famous for military

ferocity, and hostile to the Spaniards. At present, a very few survive

in a corner of the territory of Santa Fè, the rest having long since

fallen victims to war, or the small-pox. Nearly the same fate has swept

away the equestrian tribes of the Malbalaes, Mataras, Palomos, Mogosnas,

Orejones, Aquilotes, Churumates, Ojotades, Tanos, Quamalcas, &c. The

equestrian nations remaining in Chaco, and still formidable to the

Spaniards, are the Abipones, Natekebits, Tobas, Amokebits, Mocobios,

Yapitalakas, or Zapitalakas, and Oekakakalots, Guaycurus, or Lenguas.

The Mbayas dwelling on the eastern shore of the Paraguay call themselves

Eyiguayegis, those on the western Quetiadegodis. The pedestrian tribes

are the Lules, the Ysistines Foxistines, who speak the same language, to

wit the Tonocotè, and have been, for the most part, converted by us, and

settled in towns: the Homoampas, Vilelas, Chunipies, Yooks, Ocoles, and

Pazaines, who are in great part Christians: the Mataguayos, whom we have

so often attempted to civilize, but who always proved indocile: the

Payaguas, the Guanas, and the Chiquitos. By the annual excursions of men

of our order to the woods, savages speaking various languages, as the

Zamucos, Caypotades, Ygaronos, &c. were added to the colonies of the

Chiquitos.

The Chiriguanos, a nation very famous for number, fierceness and

obstinacy, can scarcely, I think, be referred to Chaco, as the majority

of them inhabit the territories of Tarija and Peru. Their language,

which is somewhat remarkable, is a dialect of the Guarany, very little

corrupted. Tradition reports, that they formerly migrated from the

southern shores of the Parana and the Paraguay, to these northern tracts

of Peru, through fear of the vengeance which threatened them from the

Portugueze, for having murdered their countryman Alexo Garzia. This

cause of their migration some reject, and contend that near a hundred

years before the murder of Alexo Garzia, they had been attacked, but not

vanquished, by the Inca Yupangui. This is, at any rate, most certain,

that the Chiriguanos, except a few who now profess Christianity, are, at

this day, hostile to the Spaniards, and formidable to the whole

neighbourhood far and wide.

I shall here cursorily mention the other nations yet remaining in

Paraguay, without the limits of Chaco: the Guaranies, by far the most

numerous of all, inhabiting thirty-two large towns, on the shores of the

Parana, Paraguay, and Uruguay, and all of them sincerely attached to the

King, and the Catholic Faith; as also the Ytatinguas, who occupy two

colonies in the woods of Taruma. Other little towns, also, administered

by secular Presbyters, or Franciscans, are inhabited by Christian

Guaranies. The Tobatinguas, Tapes, and Caayguas, still hidden in the

coverts of woods, have assumed these names from the mountains, rivers,

or forests which they tenant, but are in reality Guaranies, and use the

Guarany tongue. The Guayaguis are a populous nation, entirely different

from the Guaranies in language, customs, and fairness of complexion.

They wander over the remote forests on the banks of the Mondaỹ-guazù.

They leap from tree to tree, like monkies, in search of honey, little

birds, and other provision. Destitute of clothing and settled

habitations, a timid race, they pass their lives without injuring any

one. On the craggy rocks overhanging the river Tebiguarỹ Miri, and the

little city Villa Rica, dwells a race of savages, called by the

Spaniards Guaycuruti, from the fairness of their faces; men tall of

stature, and armed with a club, and arrows. Troops of these occasionally

descend into the plain beneath their mountains, and with their missiles

or clubs kill the mules and horses of the Spaniards, and cutting them

into pieces, transport them on their shoulders, and feast most

luxuriously upon them at home. When, therefore, this carnage of horses

and mules had brought devastation on the Spanish estates, it was

unanimously agreed to examine the lurking-places of the savages, and

either lead them away captive, or cut them off by massacre. The

expedition was weighty, but brief. For on the very first day, some

unaccountable panic induced them to return. To these horse-eaters I join

the Indian man-eaters, who wander in the woods between the rivers Parana

and Uruguay, as also on the shores of the Mondaỹ-guazù, and Acaraỹ,

constantly intent on the chase of men, whose flesh they infinitely

prefer to that of any beast. They have been sought after by men of our

order, often with great hardships, often at the peril of their lives,

but always in vain. The extensive plains, the forest labyrinths, the

difficult recesses of the Yguazu, Ygatimi, Carema, Curyi, Acaraỹ,

Monday, &c. abound in hives of wood Indians, who, though differently

named, according to the places where they reside, may in general be

referred to the Guarany nation.

Among the equestrian nations out of Chaco, the first place is held by

the Guenoas, who reside between the rivers Uruguay and Plata, and the

Pacific Ocean, without, however, having any fixed settlements. This very

numerous nation comprehends the Charruas, the Yaros, Bohanes, Minoanes,

and Costeros, all horsemen, and of the most barbarous manners. These

savages, as dwelling nearest the Rio de la Plata, and being, as it were,

the door-keepers of all Paraguay, have ever given the most trouble to

the new arrivers from Spain, to whom they are hostile in the highest

degree. In 1750, the soldiers of Santa Fè, to revenge their frequent

violation of the stipulated peace, surprized the perfidious Charruas,

about morning, as they were sleeping in their tents. Many were slain,

and the rest led into captivity with their families. On the western

shore of the Parana, a village was built for them, about twenty leagues

distant from the city, a priest given them to instruct them in religion

and humanity, and a guard of soldiers added to secure his personal

safety, and prevent their flight. The savages were chiefly supported by

the flesh of wild horses, with which the neighbouring plains are

overrun. Tamed by hunger and misery, the Charruas applied themselves to

agriculture, and yielded conformity to their priest, who, fearing

nothing farther for his own security, and that of the colony, desired

that the soldiers might be removed, as he found their presence totally

useless to himself, and extremely prejudicial to his proselytes. This

good man, who was a Franciscan, knew that he should lose both cost and

labour, if the Indians observed the manners and discourse of the

soldiers incongruous with the precepts issued from the church. On the

fear of hostile aggression, soldiers are sometimes sent from the city

for the defence of a new colony; but we dreaded the coming of the

soldiers, more than that of the savages. For the former by their

licentiousness do more harm to the women, than the savages could do to

the colony with all their weapons. About the end of the last century,

men of our order, by their eloquence and kindness, so far brought over

the barbarous Yaros, who form a large part of the Quenoas, that,

collected in a little town dedicated to St. Andrew, they suffered

themselves, for some time, to be instructed in religion; but at the

instigation of a certain famous juggler, they returned to their old

haunts. Being asked the cause of their flight, "We don't like," said

they, "to have a God who knows and sees all we do in secret. It is our

fixed resolve and pleasure to enjoy our old liberty of thinking and

acting as we like." The massacres committed by these worst of savages,

in the territories of Corrientes, Santa Fé, and Monte-Video, alike

exceed belief and calculation.

That immense plain which stretches out to the south west of

Buenos-Ayres, is inhabited by equestrian savages. They have not all the

same name or language. By the Spaniards they are either called

Pampas,—dwellers in champaigne country; or Serranos,—mountaineers. From

the Indians of Peru, they receive the general name of Aucas, to wit,

enemies, or rebels. In reality, however, they are divided into Puelches,

Peguenches, Thuelchùs, (whom we call Patagonians,) Sanguelches,

Muluches, and Araucanos, the masters of the Chili Alps. Horrible

names!—but far more horrible are the dispositions, deeds, manners and

opinions of those who bear them. The country tenanted by these savages

stretches an hundred leagues from north to south—from east to west full

two hundred; is almost destitute of wood and water, but abounds in wild

animals. Multitudes of emus wander over these solitudes. The horse

supplies them with food, clothes, lodging, bed, arms, medicine, thread,

and what not? Of the hide they make their couch, clothing, boots, tents,

saddles, and thongs which serve alike for bridle and weapons. The sinews

of the horse they use instead of thread, for the purposes of sewing.

They drink melted horse-fat, and wash their heads, first with the blood

of these animals, and afterwards with water, in the idea of its

strengthening them. They twist horse-hair into ropes. They are terribly

addicted to drunkenness, and expend their whole property in purchasing

brandy from the Spaniards. When I resided in Buenos-Ayres, to sell this

pestilent liquor was a crime, the absolution of which was reserved for

the Bishop alone. For a single flagon of brandy, the young maid is often

sold by her parents as a wife to some savage suitor. As soon as the

first potation is prepared of the alfaroba mixed in water, they flock to

their burying-places, not without many ceremonies, and sprinkling them

with this beverage, utter the tenderest lamentations, for pity that

those entombed beneath cannot enjoy their nectar. In war, these savages

are extremely formidable to the neighbouring Spaniards. Fleet horses, a

sword, a spear, and three stone balls covered with leather, and

suspended from as many thongs, which they hurl with great dexterity, are

their weapons, and weapons by no means to be despised.

The Southern savages, when wrought to the highest pitch of bitterness,

leave their enemy, mutilated in both feet, and writhing on the ground,

like a worm, to the tortures of a protracted death. This is their most

familiar threat, when angry. Those whom they despatch at a single blow,

they think kindly and humanely treated. Actuated by an irrational kind

of pity, they are wont to bury their dying ere the breath has left them,

to shorten their pains. At other times, when they see a man struggling

in the agonies of death, they paint him with various colours, and adorn

him with blue beads. They compose the corpse in such a manner, that the

knees touch the face. His horses, ornamented with small copper bells,

glass beads, and emu feathers, they lead round the tent of the deceased,

for a certain number of times, after which they kill them. The same fate

awaits his dogs. The bodies of the horses are fastened to the grave with

stakes, from which are suspended many coloured garments. They believe

that the souls both of men and emus inhabit subterraneous tents. See!

what multitudes of nations are yet remaining in Paraguay! numerous

others, moreover, whose names exist alone in histories and maps, have

perished long since from various causes. Of this number are the

Caracaras, Hastores, Ohomàs, Timbus, Caracoas, Napigues, Agazes,

Itapurus, Urtuezes, Perabazones, Frentones, Aguilotes, &c.

In this place we may add, that within the ample confines of Paraguay,

there is scarce known a single nation upon which the Jesuits have not

bestowed their labours, and for which, whenever it was permitted, a

colony was not founded. Above all, the nation of the Guaranies, though

never to be vanquished by the arms of the Europeans, evinced such

docility and obedience to the instructions of the Jesuits, and such

submission to God and the Spanish monarchy, as could neither be gained

nor expected from the other Americans. The Guaranies owe it to the

exceeding benevolence of the Spanish Kings, that they have ever sent

them Jesuits from Europe to teach them religion, that they have

liberally supported them, that the annual tribute exacted from them has

been lightened, and that they have protected them against envy and

calumny by their royal letters. No time can erase the memory of such

benefits. No one, however, will deny that the Spaniards, on the other

hand, owe much to the Guaranies educated under our discipline. They have

been partakers in all the wars which the Spaniards have waged in

Paraguay against foreign or domestic foes, and have had a great share of

all their victories. Again and again have all the Indian nations

secretly conspired to the destruction of the Spaniards. And doubtless so

great a number of rebels must ultimately have triumphed over so small a

band as the Spaniards, had not our Guaranies, embracing the royal party,

strenuously opposed the arms and purposes of its opponents. From one

instance which I shall produce, you may judge of the rest.

In the years 1665 and 1666, the Indians almost universally harboured

designs of expelling the Spaniards from the whole province. Already were

the torches of sedition and tumult scattered in every corner of

Paraguay. The royal Governour Alphonso Sarmiento, alarmed by these

rumours, hastened from Asumpcion, with a little band of soldiers, to the

town of Arecaya, about sixty leagues distant, situate on the banks of

the Yeyuy; a place of the inhabitants of which he entertained some

suspicions. The greater part of them were in a state of slavery to

private Spaniards, and but little content with their lot. Pretending

friendship, however, they received the Governour with honour, and he,

suspecting no turbulence for the present, took up his quarters on the

skirts of the town, in huts of boughs and straw. In the dead of the

night the Indians surprized the Spaniards with every species of weapon,

and cast fire upon their huts. Some of the Spaniards were slain and more

wounded; most of their clothes were burnt, their gunpowder was exploded,

and some of their guns were taken by the enemy. In the trepidation

excited, the soldiers betook themselves to the neighbouring church,

where they thought for a little while to remain in safety. But destitute

of meat and drink they must have perished of thirst and famine. The holy

water was converted into a remedy for their thirst. The enemy blockading

the walls, they had no opportunity of escape, no means of obtaining

provision. At last, the danger of the Governour and his comrades being

told to the Guarany Ytatinguas in St. Ignacio and Nuestra Señora Santa

Fè, Father Quesa, who presided over both these colonies, set out

immediately with about two hundred of his Indian horsemen, in the view

of assisting the Governour. After travelling incessantly for twenty-four

hours, they entered Arecaya, where the Indian rebels were slain or taken

prisoners by the Christian Guaranies, and the Spaniards brought forth to

freedom and security. Out of the company of Guaranies three horsemen

were chosen to carry the Governour's letters to Asumpcion, in which he

informed them of what had happened, and what steps must be taken for his

own safety and that of the province. The court of Madrid was immediately

apprized of the fidelity and zeal of the Guaranies, whom the Catholic

King honoured with gracious letters, which are still preserved in the

register of Nuestra Señora a Santa Fè. It appears from sufficient

authority that a sedition raised by factious and warlike nations, with a

view to the destruction of all the Spaniards, would have broken out had

they not stood in awe of the strength and immutable fidelity of the

Guarany nation towards the King. On this very account they were exposed

to the hatred of the savages hostile to the Catholic King. The Guaycurus

for many years harassed these two towns of the Ytatinguas, and compelled

them, at length, to exchange their station for one surrounded by the

rivers Parana and Paraguay, where yet remain the posterity of those who

aided the Spaniards endangered in Arecaya.

Concerning the ten towns of the Chiquitos I have spoken before. These

Indians, formidable from their warlike courage and mortally poisoned

arrows, whenever commanded by the royal Governours have uniformly proved

brave and faithful fellow-soldiers to the Spaniards against the savages,

and even against the Portugueze. Less in point of number, but highly

consequential to the tranquillity of the whole province, have been the

four cities of the Abipones, the two of Mocobios, one of Tobas, and

another of Mbayas, warlike and equestrian nations. To these add the

pedestrian nations, the Lules, Vilelas, Chiriguanos, Chunipies,

Homoampas, &c. converted by us to the Roman rites and discipline in

their own colonies. In language, manners, and religious observances,

they differ amongst themselves; they are all, however, attached to

agriculture.

Very many Indian towns have long since ceased to exist, sometimes from

the inconstancy of the Indians sighing for their native land, sometimes

from the malevolence, the avarice, or inertness of the Europeans. Father

Joseph Labrador is my authority, that seventy-three towns of various

Indians perished in the province of Chaco. In the present age, by much

labour of the Jesuits, three towns have arisen, at an immense expense,

for the southern savages, the inhabitants of the Magellanic territory,

all dedicated to the most holy mother of God. The first, named

Concepcion, is inhabited by the Pampas, and acted as a defence to the

inhabitants of Buenos-Ayres against the incursions of the savages. The

rulers of the newly-built town, Father Matthias Strobl from the province

of Austria, and Manuel Querini, a Venetian of noble family, were men of

distinguished piety, prudence, and fortitude. Both Fathers possessed

singular dexterity in managing the minds of the Indians. The

neighbourhood of the city, and of the Spanish estates, where there was

plenty of spirit and of bad example, incredibly retarded the conversion

of the savages to a better way of life. The Serranos and Patagonians,

who came backwards and forwards to visit the Pampas, won by the kindness

of the Father, and taken by the conveniences of life which the

inhabitants of the colonies enjoyed, began earnestly to desire a little

town of this sort in their native soil. Their wishes were immediately

gratified. Fathers Falconer and Cardiel, the one an Englishman of great

skill in medicine, the other a Spaniard, and a man of an ardent and

intrepid mind, travelled to their savage wildernesses, and having felt

the pulse of the people, looked about for an opportune situation,

wherein to establish the intended colony. At length the town was built,

and the Caciques Marike and Tschuan Tuya, with four-and-twenty hordesmen

belonging to them, settled therein; it was named Nuestra Señora del

Pilar. To govern this colony, Father Matthias Strobl, who knew a little

of those languages, was removed thither by the mandate of the Superior.

Though daily vicissitudes occurred, yet hopes of the happiest progress

shone through them. But an unforeseen event almost proved fatal to the

new raised colony. Thus it was: a murder happening to be committed in

the territory of Buenos-Ayres, soldiers were sent by the Governour to

detect the assassins. Cacique Yahati, a Serrano, accompanied by fifteen

persons of both sexes, in travelling to the city, fell in with the

soldiers, and without any foundation for the conjecture, was carried off

on the suspicion of this murder, and kept closely confined in prison

with his people in the city. With how incensed a mind the inhabitants of

the town bore so great an injury done to their countryman, of whose

innocence they felt assured, can scarcely be expressed. The life of

Father Matthias Strobl was placed in the most imminent danger. Cacique

Marike, who, though blind in both eyes, possessed the greatest authority

among them, was immediately delegated by the infuriated people to make

the just demand of their captive's liberty from the Spanish Governour,

and to declare instant war, in the name of the whole nation, against the

Spaniards if he should refuse. This threat filled Joseph Andonaegui with

distracting cares, conscious, as he was, of the slender forces he had to

oppose to so numerous a foe. The examination of the murder being

resumed, and the witnesses being heard again and again, the innocence of

the imprisoned Cacique at length appeared, some credible Spaniards

asserting, that at the very time when the murder was committed he was

engaged in a certain shop in the city. Which being proved, after a

causeless captivity of four months, they were immediately granted their

liberty and the power of returning to their friends by the equitable

Governour. These things fell out on my third visit to Buenos-Ayres,

about the beginning of the year 1748. Through an Indian interpreter I

had a good deal of conversation with the blind Cacique Marike, and on my

playing to him in my chamber, on the viol d'amour, he took such a liking

to me, that he earnestly entreated me to go to their colony, as an

assistant to Father Matthias Strobl, who was growing aged. Both my feet,

I confess, itched for the journey; I answered, however, "Pleased indeed

should I be to mount my horse, and accompany you to the Magellanic

lands. But men of our profession cannot go where we will, except we be

sent by the command of our captain, (the provincial.") "Where, pray,

does your captain dwell?" eagerly inquired Marike. "In this very house,"

returned I. On hearing this he immediately caused himself to be led into

our provincial's chamber, and with importunate but vain entreaties,

begged me for his companion. The provincial replied, that I was now

appointed to another station, but promised to send me in two years to

his colony, and the provincial would have stood to his promise, had not

my labours been needed amongst the Abipones.

On the departure of the captives from Buenos Ayres, the town was

restored to its former tranquillity, and shortly after increased by new

supplies of Patagonians. For these a single town was prepared, four

leagues distant, and named Nuestra Señora de los Desamparados. The

government of it was committed to Father Lorenzo Balda of Pampeluna, and

to Father Augustino Vilert a Catalan. Three of the Patagonian Caciques,

with eighty of their hordesmen, occupied this colony. A horde consists

of three or four families, sometimes of more. Each family generally

numbers four, five, and often more heads; for the Patagonians have many

children, and polygamy is very common amongst them. They are docile

beyond all the other southern tribes, and make less opposition to

baptism, but I cannot commend the young men of this nation either for

honesty or modesty. Scarce any commerce is carried on between the

Spaniards and Patagonians. From a nation so populous, so tractable, and

of so gentle a disposition, great accessions were reasonably expected to

Christianity, but Satan confounded all these fair hopes. Cangapol, the

potentate of that region, long beheld these Christian colonies with

gloomy and envious eyes. Through them he thought that friendships would

be formed with the Spaniards, the freedom of the southern nations

endangered, and his own power in these parts gradually diminished, and

ultimately suppressed. Hence he turned his whole heart and thoughts to

hastening the destruction of the new town, and the banishment of the

Fathers who taught the strange religion. In order to effect these

purposes, as many savages as possible were associated in a contract of

arms, and an expedition was at length undertaken. Matthias Strobl, being

made acquainted with the route and immense number of the enemy, made a

timely request by letter, to the Governour, for military succours from

Buenos-Ayres, which city promised seventy provincial horsemen, but never

supplied one. Thus having suffered a repulse from the Spaniards, whose

interest it chiefly was to maintain these towns, by flying with his

people, the Father eluded the enemy—eluded since he could not subdue.

The towns, their flocks, and their herds were left. The neophytes and

catechumens, all who were sincere in religion and friendly to the

Spaniards, fled with the Fathers to the city of Concepcion. But this

colony being daily harassed by hostile incursions, and but lazily

defended by the Spanish guards, was entirely deserted on the 3d of

February, 1753, a severe loss to the city. For the savages being now at

full liberty to ravage where they would, the estates for two leagues

distant from the city were presently left destitute of their guards, and

the lands around the village of Magdalen, famous for large crops of

wheat, of their cultivators, both having fled to safer quarters. In the

city itself the most disgraceful trepidations often arose, sometimes

from real danger, at others from the suspicion alone of an enemy. In the

circumjacent estates and plains very many were despoiled of their

substance, their cattle, and their life, by the assaulting savages. The

light-armed cavalry, who were commanded to keep watch in the country and

repress the enemy, suffered repeated losses. Waggons laden with silver

from Peru, were often despoiled of their treasures, the soldiers who

guarded and transported them being miserably butchered. The same savages

have often proved fatal, always formidable, to the inhabitants of

Barragan, a bay of the Rio de la Plata, where vessels are often drawn

out and refitted. Those who went southward in great numbers for salt to

the salt-pits, were sometimes slain to a man. Then at length the

Spaniards perceived the utility of the southern colonies, after they had

irrecoverably lost them. That so many thousand Indians who dwell in the

southern parts, should be buried together in their darkness, is indeed a

reflexion worthy of regret. Who will not deplore the infinite miseries

of the Jesuits, who laboured for many years upon this people, the

hardships of their journeys, their want of necessaries, the daily perils

that threatened their lives, and the greatness of their labours,—labours

almost fruitless, except indeed their sending to Heaven a considerable

number of infants, baptized before their death, as also not a few

adults? At first, before oxen and sheep were sent for their subsistence,

the Fathers lived on horse-flesh, the daily food of those Indians.

Father Thomas Falconer, who wandered over all the plains with his

Indians to kill horse-flesh, having no plate of pewter or wood, always,

in place thereof, made use of his hat, which grew at length so greasy,

that it was devoured whilst he slept by the wild dogs with which the

plains are over-run. Father Matthias Strobl's hut being set on fire by

some villain or other, and the straw roof being already in flames, he

would doubtless himself have perished, had he not been awakened from his

deep sleep, by one who continued faithful to him, and rescued him from

the conflagration. The town of Concepcion was situated in 322° 20´

longitude, and in latitude 36° 20´; that of Nuestra Señora del Pilar was

distant from Concepcion seventy leagues to the south west; from

Buenos-Ayres full an hundred and ten leagues; from the town of Nuestra

Señora de los Desamparados only four.

Nor must you think that the care of taming and instructing the southern

nations has been neglected till our time. This business was taken up by

the Catholic kings, and us Jesuits, in the last century. Every method

was vainly tried to unite them to Christ and the Catholic King. Omitting

the rest, Fathers Nicholas Mascardi and Joseph Quilelmo, indefatigable

teachers of the holy religion in that place, were murdered by their

cruel, unmanageable disciples. Nothing daunted by the ferocity thus

manifested in the savages, our companions, both of Chili and of

Paraguay, left no stone unturned to enlighten these uttermost corners of

South America with the torch of the gospel; but the attempt was ever

vain and unrewarded, save by the immortal glory which their apostolic

magnanimity and fortitude gained them. In the year 1745, a ship was

despatched by Philip the Fifth from Cadiz to Paraguay, for the purpose

of inspecting the shores of Magellan, and the neighbouring land. If any

post or commodious station offered itself, it was to be fortified

against an enemy. If they discovered the quarters of any savages, a

colony and religious instruction were to be awarded them. Three Jesuits,

therefore, were destined by the King for this perilous expedition.

Father Joseph Quiroga, Father Joseph Cardiel, and Father Matthias

Strobl. From the military guard of the city of Monte-Video, twenty-five

soldiers were chosen for the defence of the ship and the crew. They

weighed anchor in the port of Monte-Video, on the 17th of December,

1745, and set out with prosperous gales and minds full of hope.

Whatever land or water came within his observation, was diligently

explored, and carefully noted in the journal of the voyage by Father

Quiroga, who, in a boat, examined the harbour, the rivers, the lakes,

the depth or shallowness of the water, the sandbanks, and the rocks

between them; in short, every thing dangerous or favourable to the

navigation of the Spaniards. Fathers Strobl and Cardiel, meantime,

taking a divided route, on foot, in various directions, attended by a

certain number of soldiers, traversed the plains remote from the shore,

and accurately examined their nature, and whether any sign of human

habitation, or convenience for the same appeared, often ascending the

steepest mountains with this view. Not unfrequently they receded many

leagues from the shores, in the hope of finding Indians. Father Strobl,

after having proceeded four leagues without seeing a man, or any sign of

man's habitation, abandoned all hope, and sent a soldier to tell Father

Cardiel, who had travelled many leagues, and was quite spent with so

much walking, that he thought it highly imprudent to prosecute the

journey they had begun—that they might not improbably fall in with a

numerous troop of savage horse, by whom they, a few wearied footmen,

would undoubtedly be all cut to pieces—that he had himself long wished

to fall in the cause of religion, but that he neither could nor would

place the lives of others in such peril—and that even were they free

from this danger, and were no enemy to meet them, yet, as their

provisions were already consumed, if they prosecuted their journey, both

themselves and their companions must perish of hunger. Father Cardiel

however, always intrepid, dissuaded the return, urging that the

habitations of the savages must be near, principally on this ground,

that he saw a whitish dog barking at his men, but which soon after ran

away, hastening, as might be believed, to his master. In spite of these

arguments, both Fathers returned with their companions to the ship.

There the matter being prudently discussed, and all the officers

consulted, it was finally resolved that Father Cardiel, at his earnest

desire, should be permitted to repeat the journey, on this condition,

that he should set out with four and thirty men, soldiers as well as

sailors, who were willing to follow him of their own accord, and with

provisions sufficient to last them eight days. The journey was begun on

the 20th of February, and each day they travelled about eight leagues.

For the most part, they walked in a narrow and almost obliterated path

of the Indians. Drinkable water was every where at hand. Except emus,

and a few huanacos, no beasts were any where seen. On the fourth day of

their journey, about evening, they perceived a high hill, from the top

of which they beheld a plain, entirely destitute of grass and trees.

They all thought the cold of the night air intolerable; for though

shrubs were at hand to supply their fires, yet when the side nearest to

it grew warm, the other, being exposed to the most piercing wind, seemed

frozen. Amidst all this cold, the courage of the soldiers daily inflamed

more and more, but their bodies were observed sensibly to fail and break

down. Their shoes being worn by the roughness of the roads, many of them

crept along with naked, and not a few with wounded feet. Father Cardiel

too was first afflicted with nephritic pains, and afterwards with such a

debility in his feet, that he could not advance a step without crutches.

With all this, however, the ardent desire of discovering the habitations

of the savages never cooled. But their provisions, which were destined

for an eight days' journey, being now, after five days, in great measure

consumed, they were obliged to hasten back again to the ship. One effect

however was produced by this calamitous journey—it was now finally

determined, by ocular demonstration, that the hordes of the savages were

at a great distance from the sea; and that immense tracts of land

bordering upon the shore were uninhabitable, as destitute either of

fresh water, grass, or trees, or of all together; so much so at least,

that, except a few emus and huanacos, you could find scarce any sort of

beast. All things, therefore, having been considered, since there was no

opportunity of erecting a colony for the Indians, or a fortress for the

Spaniards, they unanimously resolved upon a return; to be conducted,

however, in such a way, that they should repeatedly disembark and

explore those places they were obliged to pass by in coming. At length,

on the 4th day of April, about sun-set, they cast anchor in the port of

Buenos-Ayres. The journal which Quiroga had made of the shore and

harbours, soon after printed and published at Madrid, with plates of

whatever seemed remarkable, will be of the highest use to Spaniards

hereafter in navigating this turbulent sea. I may here add, that Father

Joseph Cardiel, not having discovered the savages of the coast of

Magellan, either in his naval or his pedestrian journey, set out on

horseback in search of them, with a few companions. But their pains were

as fruitless as before. After wandering much and long over these

solitary plains, and consuming all the provisions he had brought with

him, he was reduced to such straights as to be obliged to feed on grass,

unless he preferred dying of emptiness, the extremity of which obliged

him to return to Buenos-Ayres, his business left unfinished, but

himself, for his signal fortitude, his magnanimity, and apostolic

ardour, truly deserving of honour and imitation.

In the year 1765, a large merchant-ship freighted to the value of some

millions, destined to Callao, a harbour of Lima, was stranded and lost

off the island of Terra del Fuego. The crew fortunately escaped, and

reached the island in a boat, the ship gradually foundering. Part of the

provision, the cannon, and other necessaries for supporting life, were

providently got out of the leaking vessel. A hill, neighbouring to the

sea, was occupied by the shipwrecked Spaniards, and fortified by I don't

know how many cannon. These being discharged, a troop of the Indian

inhabitants was seen advancing from afar. They were entirely naked, and

each kept rubbing his belly with his hands. On a second explosion, they

all fell on the ground, still continuing, however, to rub their bellies.

This ridiculous action of the savages the Spaniards were in doubt

whether to construe into a sign of friendship, or of hostility. As no

one understood their language, they were invited by gentle tones,

friendly nods, and little gifts displayed to them, till at length they

approached the station of the Spaniards, still rubbing their bellies

without intermission. Which custom surprizing the Spaniards, they now

call them _Rascabarrigas_, or the belly-rubbers. To conciliate the minds

of the islanders, elegant weapons, food, and various other little gifts

were offered them; except, however, some strings of glass beads, nothing

was accepted by the savages, who feared some fraud from the strangers.

They were, however, peaceable and quiet, so that the Spaniards mixed

amongst them, without fear of injury or hostile designs, and solicitous

only respecting the means and opportunity of sailing back to their

friends. It was resolved to build a vessel after their own model,

sufficient for the number of the shipwrecked. Trees adapted for

ship-building abounded in this island, nor did they want workmen or

carpenters' tools. The Indians themselves faithfully indicated the

places which supplied the hardest and largest wood, and with more

good-will than usefulness assisted the Spaniards in cutting and sawing

the beams; but after three or four strokes of the axe, or lifts of the

saw, they retired fatigued, being utterly unaccustomed to labour. The

Spaniards, however, longing to revisit their native soil, made up for

the deficiencies of the Indians, by their own sedulity. And now when

every thing was ready and prepared, iron nails were wanted to fasten the

joints of the ship. But the sea, bringing up various chests from the

foundered ship with the tide, one was found amongst them full of the

requisite nails, a circumstance looked upon by all as a signal favour of

Providence. Some of the tackling, which they had prudently taken from

the lost ship, proved of great service. With these aids the finishing

stroke was put to the little vessel, in which, after a prosperous voyage

of about a thousand leagues, they arrived safe at the harbour of

Monte-Video. All this which I have written on the shipwreck and

navigation of the Spaniards was related to me in the city of Santa Fé,

by an old Biscayan, builder of the foundered ship, companion of all

their perils, and architect of the vessel constructed in the island. In

the year 1788, when with my companions I was awaiting my passage to

Europe, at Buenos-Ayres, a ship set sail from that port, for Terra del

Fuego, with two priests, who being liberally provided with every thing

from the royal treasury, were ordered to establish a settlement in that

island, and to teach the natives religion. But not long after, they

returned to Buenos-Ayres in the same ship, without effecting their

business. What was done, or attempted, and what was the occasion of

their hasty return, I know not: but I heard the groans of the noble

Spaniards, who earnestly desired the Jesuits for this momentous

expedition: they, however, were recalled, God knows why, that same year

to Europe. In succeeding years the Spaniards have wished to subdue and

instruct that island, which lies near to the Maloine islands, in south

lat. 51° 30´, and west long. 60° 50´ from the meridian of Paris. This

isle, named from St. Maló, a town of Bretany, was taken possession of

with the labour and expense of Louis Antoine de Bourgainville, then

colonel of foot, and of Messieurs de Nerville and de Arboulin, his

relatives, and in the year 1763, or more probably 1764, delivered to

some loyal and industrious families of Nova Scotia, to be civilized.

Three years after, to wit in 1767, it was sold for eighty thousand

Spanish crowns to the Catholic King Charles, who thought that this

colony of strangers, as neighbouring to the provinces of Peru and Chili,

so rich in gold and silver, might prove dangerous to his monarchy, in

case of war, and cause a disunion between the Spanish and French

monarchies. The French families being transported to Europe, their

places were supplied, for the most part, by Spanish convicts, scarce one

of whom did not prefer a prison, or speedy death, to the constant and

lasting calamities of this province. Philip Ruiz Puente, of the king's

war-ship _La Liebre_, who brought out new settlers, warlike implements,

and provisions, was appointed to the government. He was accompanied by

another ship of war, _La Esmeralda_, commanded by Matteo Callao.—This

captain, returning in the same, from the Maloine islands, to

Monte-Video, transported me, with one hundred and fifty of my

associates, back to Europe. We had with us the Frenchman Nerville, who

had just discharged the government of that unhappy island; from him, as

well as from the Spaniards employed there, I learnt most of what I have

written on this subject.

On sufficient grounds have I bestowed the epithet unhappy on an island,

which is, nevertheless, by some Frenchmen pronounced equal to the

Fortunate Islands: and no wonder, for do we not always cry up the goods

we want to sell? Attend to what I have learnt on good authority,

respecting the island of St. Maló. It was never habitable either by

Indians, or beasts, so destitute is it of every thing pertaining to the

support of life. Rushes instead of trees, moss instead of grass, marsh

and mud for earth, cold always the most severe for air, and night almost

perpetual, with darkness and clouds, instead of sun, are what it offers

to the new inhabitants. The longest day lasts but a very few hours. From

its propinquity to the antarctic pole, it generally rages with furious

south winds, whirlwinds, and tempests. The frost, joined to almost

perpetual snow, is on this account the more intolerable, because

throughout the whole island, which is far from extensive, there is not

wood sufficient to make a fire, or build a hut, unless it be brought

from Terra del Fuego, which cannot be done without danger. The goats

which the French had brought, either from the want of pasture, or the

noxious qualities thereof, soon perished. The corn, from the ooziness of

the soil, never attained maturity, the stalk being always stunted, and

the ear seldom formed at all. Hence, the European supplies being now

consumed, frequent famine was added to their other miseries. Provision

was afforded them by the water-fowl called by the English, Penguins. In

place of bread, powder and shot were given to the Spanish soldiers and

others to shoot birds with. These, though at the coming of the French

exceedingly numerous, yet partly from being constantly shot, partly from

being scared away, were so diminished, that the succeeding Spaniards

were deprived of this solitary benefit of that most sterile island.

Nevertheless, it must be confessed, that this island, though calamitous

to its inhabitants, is of service to the Spaniards, as affording a

refuge to vessels in distress, an harbour capable of containing a

moderate fleet, and convenience for procuring water. The places open to

the attack and ascent of an enemy, were fortified by a mound and a tier

of cannon. Antonio Catani, then colonel of foot, commanded the small

garrison. But in discoursing on the devastated cities of Paraguay, I

have suffered myself to be carried away into the lands of Magellan. Let

me now return to the straight road.

To record every Indian town which has been overturned in Paraguay, and

the causes and periods of the fall of each, were a task of infinite time

and labour. It appears on record that upwards of four hundred towns,

which formerly stood around Guadalcazar, a city of Tucuman now

destroyed, utterly perished. Within the limits of the cities Cordoba,

Rioja, St. Iago, St. Miguel of Tucuman, Corrientes, and Asumpcion, I

might almost say that innumerable colonies have fallen to the ground.

Those which remain are mere shadows of towns, consisting of a few

miserable inhabitants—miserable, for they are slaves to Spanish

individuals. Before I relate the devastation of many of our Guarany

towns by the Mamalukes, inhabitants of Brazil, allow me to make a few

premises. The soldiers, fresh arriving from Spain, subdued the lands and

nations bordering on the Parana and Paraguay only: as for those more

remote, they did not want courage to explore them, but means. Not a few

of the Guaranies were enlightened by the torch of the Gospel, chiefly by

the Franciscan Fathers, and, if circumstances permitted, placed in

colonies. St. Francisco Solano and Lewis Bolaños were famous for their

apostolic expeditions in that age; but the want of associates like

themselves, and of successors, rendered them unequal to the harvest

which lay before them; and infinite was the number of Guaranies which

lurked within the coverts of the woods and shores—a multitude hostile,

on every opportunity, to the Spaniards, then few in number. In 1610,

Ferdinand Arias, the governor both of Buenos-Ayres and Asumpcion,

marched out with numerous forces against the Guaranies inhabiting the

banks of the Uruguay, but alarmed by their numbers and ferocity,

returned to the city. Not by the fire-vomiting arms of soldiers, but by

the sweet eloquence of the Fathers, by love, not by fear, were the

Guaranies vanquished. In the same year, Father Marcello Lorenzana, a

Spaniard, and master of our college at Asumpcion, at length prevailed

upon the Guaranies who wandered between the Paraguay and Parana, to

embrace the Roman Catholic religion, in the large town which he had

built for them, under the illustrious name of St. Ignatius Loyola. Near

about the same time, Fathers Giuseppe Cataldino and Simone Mazzeta,

Italians, Antonio Ruiz de Montoya, an American Spaniard, and their

successors, in after years, Roque Gonzalez, a Spaniard of Paraguay,

Pedro Romero, Diego Boroa, &c., all Jesuits, explored the province of

Guayra, as also those forest and mountain coverts toward the river

Uruguay, which had proved inaccessible to the Spanish soldiery, where

they discovered many thousands of Guaranies, who were assembled in

colonies, and brought over to God and the Catholic King.

These rapid progresses in the Christian cause have been miserably

retarded by the Mamalukes from Brazil, a bordering country, and

principally from St. Paulo. The Mamalukes are a set of people born of

Portugueze, Dutch, French, Italians and Germans, and Brazilian women,

celebrated for skill in shooting and robbing, ready for any daring

enterprize, and thence distinguished by the foreign name of Mamalukes:

for it was their constant custom to carry off the Indians, led by the

Fathers into the freedom of the children of God, into the hardest

slavery. By their incursions, repeated for a number of years, they

overthrew the towns of Asumpcion in Ỹeyuỹ, of Todos Santos in Caarõ, of

the holy Apostles in Caazapaguazù, of St. Christopher on the opposite

side of the Ỹgaỹ, of St. Joachim in the same place, of Santa Barbara, on

the western bank of the Paraguay, and of St. Carlos in Caapi. The

Guarany inhabitants of these colonies, with the exception of a few who

escaped by flight, were led away to Brazil, chained and corded, in

herds, like cattle, and there condemned to perpetual labour in the

working of sugar, mandioc, cotton, mines, and tobacco. The sucking babes

were torn from the bosoms of their mothers, and cruelly dashed upon the

ground by the way. All whom disease or age had rendered imbecile were

either cut down or shot, as being unequal to the daily march. Others, in

sound health, were often thrown by night into trenches prepared for

them, lest they should take advantage of the darkness, and flee. Many

perished by the way, either from hunger or the hardships of a journey

protracted for many leagues. In this hunting of the Indians, they

sometimes employed open violence, sometimes craft, equally inhuman in

both. They generally rushed into the town in a long file, when the

people were assembled in the church at divine service, and, blocking up

every street and corner, left the wretched inhabitants no way of escape.

They frequently disguised themselves as Jesuits, wearing rosaries,

crosses and a black gown, and collected companies of Indians in the

woods. Many towns that were liable to the treacherous hostilities of the

Mamalukes, such as Loretto, St. Ignatius, &c. were removed to safer

places, by a journey of many months, and with incredible labour, both of

the Fathers and of the Indians. Nor did the Mamalukes spare our colonies

of the Chiquitos and Moxos, nor others in the lands of the Spaniards,

which were administered both by the secular and regular clergy. The

Indian towns settled on the banks of the Yeyuỹ, in Curuquati, and many

others, were entirely destroyed by the Mamalukes. The same fate attended

Xerez, Guayra, (Ciudad real,) Villarica, &c. cities of the Spaniards.

Who can describe all the devastation committed in Paraguay? Hear what is

said on this subject in the collection of _Lettres Curieuses et

Edifiantes_:—"It is asserted," say they, "that in the space of one

hundred and thirty years, two millions of Indians were slain, or carried

into captivity by the Mamalukes of Brazil; and that more than one

thousand leagues of country, as far as the river Amazon, was stripped of

inhabitants. It appears from authentic letters, (sent by the Catholic

King —— in the year 1639, 16th Sept.) that in five years three hundred

thousand Paraguayrian Indians were carried away into Brazil." Pedro de

Avila, Governour of Buenos-Ayres, declared that Indians were openly

sold, in his sight, by the inhabitants of the town of St. Paulo, at Rio

Janeiro; and that six hundred thousand Indians were sold, in this town

alone, from the year 1628 to the year 1630.

But this their rapacity did not always remain unpunished; for, after the

Guaranies were permitted by the King to carry fire-arms, they were

frequently repulsed, and chastised with bloody slaughters. Memorable

above the rest, was that victory which four thousand Guarany neophytes

obtained at the river Mborore over a numerous flotilla of Brazilian

banditti. Four hundred of the inhabitants of St. Paulo were present, in

three hundred barks, with two thousand seven hundred of their allies the

Tupies, the most ferocious savages in Brazil. The Guaranies, headed by

Ignacio Abiazù, a chief of their nation, went to meet the enemy in five

ships, and firing the cannon upon them, overturned three of their boats,

many of the Brazilians being either killed or wounded. Most of them,

terrified at this unexpected salutation, leaped from their boats on to

the shore, and despairing of success in a naval fight, assaulted the

army of Guaranies in the rear by surprize; but were bravely repulsed on

every side, and partly slain: and indeed they would all have been

massacred, had not night put an end to the fight and the victory. Next

day they pursued the remnant of the enemy through the wood with such

success, that the very few who remained alive, forsaking their camps and

their boats, hastened home in great trepidation, and covered with

wounds. Three only of the victorious Guaranies were slain about the

beginning of the conflict, and forty wounded. This event rendered the

men of St. Paulo afraid of the emboldened Guaranies. Peace and security

were restored to their towns, and Christianity, which the perpetual

incursions of the Mamalukes had not only disturbed, but almost banished,

was every where greatly forwarded.

Nor should you imagine, that these things, relating to the Brazilians,

are calumniously represented or exaggerated by Spanish writers. The Most

Faithful King Joseph I. himself confesses, in a decree issued on the 6th

of July, in the year 1755, and inserted into the new code of Portugueze

laws, that many millions of Indians were destroyed, and that, at the

present time, very few Brazilian towns remain, and equally few

inhabitants. He adds, that this was occasioned by the depriving the

Indians of their liberty, contrary to the laws of Portugal. He declares

the Indians free, orders the captives to be set at liberty, &c. Likewise

other pious kings of Spain and Portugal, his predecessors, prohibited

all robbery, sale, oppression, and persecution of the Indians

whatsoever, under the severest penalties, by repeated laws. Many

governours of provinces urged, but rarely brought about the observance

of these decrees. For innumerable persons, who profit by the captivity

and services of the Indians, care more about riches than about

conscience and honour. The barbarity of these men towards the Indians

was pourtrayed in lively and faithful colours by the Jesuit Father

Antonio Vieyra, who preached on this subject at the Court of Lisbon, in

the year 1662, when his persecutors had turned him out of the province

of Maranham, on account of his defending the liberty of the Indians.

As the royal laws were disregarded in Brazil, in order to eradicate this

abominable custom of enslaving and ill-treating the Indians, the King

found it necessary to have recourse to the threats and penalties of the

Pope. Paul III., Urban VIII. and Benedict XIV. threatened to

excommunicate all who should presume, in the words of the Roman Court,

to reduce the Indians to a state of servitude; to sell, buy, exchange,

or give them away; to separate them from their wives and children, or in

any way whatsoever to deprive them of their liberty, or retain them in

servitude; or to do the aforesaid under any pretext whatsoever of

lending them counsel, aid, favour, or service; or to declare, or teach

it to be lawful so to do, or to effect it in any way whatsoever. All

this was prohibited, under pain of excommunication, in favour of all the

Indians then dwelling in the provinces of Brazil and Paraguay, and at

the river Plata, as well as in all other regions both of the western and

southern Indies. The Pontifical and Royal letters against the oppression

of the Indians were intended also to correct and intimidate the

Spaniards, who, though they had formerly been less eager in captivating

the Indians, were accustomed nevertheless to make use of them as slaves,

in opposition to the commands of the king. It is incredible how wickedly

they strove to disturb the colonies of the Chiquitos and other savages,

because they feared that no Indians would be left in the woods for them

to take and sell. For from this traffic of the Indians many thousands of

crowns were yearly collected; but on account of it the savages were

forcibly deterred from embracing religion, perceiving that, if they

became Christians, and the friends of the Spaniards, they must be

eternally enslaved and miserable.

The Spanish historians complain that the Indians were hardly treated and

oppressed with labour by their masters, in many cities of Paraguay. The

Indians, wearied with miseries, returned, whenever they could, to the

ancient recesses of their forests. The Lules, who had formerly been

baptized by St. Francisco Solano, and cruelly enslaved by the

inhabitants of the city Esteco, fled to the woods which they had

formerly inhabited; from whence the Jesuit Father Antonio Machoni, a

Sardinian, brought them back, and with incredible labour civilized them

in Valle Buena, and they have remained to this day in the town of St.

Estevan. The warlike Calchaquis, deserting their Spanish masters, and

scorning miserable servitude, returned to the caves of their native

land, whence sallying forth, they afflicted Tucuman with frequent and

bloody slaughters. The citizens of Concepcion, on the banks of the river

Bermejo, were all destroyed by the Indians whom intolerable slavery had

exasperated. The Jesuits, whilst, intent upon disseminating religion,

they endeavoured to vindicate the liberty of the Indians, were often

punished with exile, often with calumny and abuse, by those who had

their own private interest more at heart than the augmentation of

religion, or of the royal authority. The Indian towns, the inhabitants

of which were subjected to private individuals, named Encomenderos, have

long since been reduced, as I said, to such wretchedness, that they

rather seemed shadows of towns, than the reality: whilst, on the other

hand, the thirty-two towns of the Guaranies, ten of the Chiquitos, and

smaller ones of other nations, the inhabitants of which were subject

only to the Catholic Monarch, continually increased in population, and

always remained and flourished under our discipline. I do not pretend to

say that Paraguay and Brazil were at all times utterly destitute of

Portugueze and Spaniards who paid strict obedience to the laws, who

execrated the avarice and cruelty of their countrymen in regard to the

Indians, and left no stone unturned to restore and protect their

liberty, and to aid the progress of religion. But alas! those few with

grief beheld themselves unable to correct a multitude of barbarians.

Ability, not inclination was wanting.

Some mention has been made of the rivers which flow through Chaco: yet

much remains to be said of the Parana, the chief and receptacle of them

all, which at Buenos-Ayres obtains the splendid but inappropriate title

of La Plata. Historians have made many mistakes respecting the source of

this river, and the origin of its name. For they think that La Plata

takes its rise chiefly from the Paraguay, and that this latter comes

from the lake Xarayes. But in both these conjectures they are wide of

the mark. For the river La Plata is in reality the vast Parana, enriched

in its course by the Paraguay, Uruguay, and innumerable other streams.

From its distant source, as far as the Pacific Ocean, it is invariably

distinguished by the Guarany natives with the name of Parana, which word

signifies something akin to, or resembling the sea.